New Brass

[coloradokevin]

Just a bit of a silly question here:

When you guys use new brass (not range pickups, etc), what steps do you take with it?

Do you run it through your sizer? Do you trim it? Do you polish the brass, or chamfer and debur the case mouths?

Or, do you just stick a primer, powder, and bullet on there and go shoot?


Seems odd, but after going through the reloading process and figuring out how to load my range pick-ups, I realized that I don't really know what folks are doing with the new store-bought brass! I was thinking of picking up some new brass as a point of comparison, and just kind of wondered how I should "process" it! Thanks!

 

[K3]

I FL size, trim, chamfer, etc. Just like I would with fired brass, the only differnce being that I neck size fired brass if it's for a bolt-action rifle.

 

[lgbloader]

same as if I fired it already. Inspect (you'd be surprised how many bad ones I have found in a new brass baggie) and FL size and then process brass as needed.

I would never just pop a primer in, charge the case and seat a bullet.

After that, you will only need to neck size if this will be for your bolt action rifles.


Same thing for Handguns, Inspect, size and process as needed.

Cheers, Mate

 

[Walkalong]

Size it, trim it, tumble it, prime it, load it, shoot it, start over.

 

[kimbernut]

For me new rifle brass gets the full treatment(FL size,trim only if out of spec.,uniform primer pockets,deburr flash holes, tumble, prime,charge,seat and off to the range we go.
Pistol brass is run through a case gauge,belled,primed, charged,seated, and taken to the range or stored for future use.(Slight case neck dents are removed by the belling procedure.)

 

[Jacka L Ope]

If it passes visual inspection and the length/headspace gauge, I load it.

 

[tasco 74]

just like most of the rest of them here i treat them like once fired brass... i have gotten a few not so nice looking new brass cases......

 

[Navy joe]

Trivia:

Q. What's the one thing you know once fired brass has but cannot be sure of on new brass?





A. A flash hole! Inspect your stuff. I've had factory ammo fail to fire, primer only, come to find out no flash hole. Seen new brass the same way.

 

[The Bushmaster]

I treat it the same as I would once fired brass or any other brass I might be loading that day.

 

[joneb]

I've have loaded and shot Nosler brass without issue, it is fully prepped. I would not normally do this but it's good to go.

 

[coloradokevin]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I have a baggie of Winchester Brass from Sportsman's Warehouse, and I'll start working on it tonight.

 

[qajaq59]

Do you run it through your sizer? Do you trim it? Do you polish the brass, or chamfer and debur the case mouths?

Yup....

 

[cpttango30]

I do the same thing as everyone else.

size, trim, chamfer, debur, inspect, clean

 

[345 DeSoto]

The ONLY thing I do different with new brass is to load it and fire form it to my chamber, THEN trim the cases...

 

[Jon Coppenbarger]

now the brass I will talk about is for my ar15's.
when I was buying once fired lc brass I would clean it, size and deprime, swage the primer pockets, debur the flash hole, trim to length and do the chamfer. was not bad but a lot of work and it shot a little better the second time around.

now I have been using Lapua brass the last like 3 or 4 years. I will open the boxes and weigh out the brass and the lots that come out close will go into my long range shooting and every thing else gets used for the rest of it. now when new it shoots darn well with just the chamfering. the primer pockets on the Lapua are not punched so I have no issues with that.

Now after a couple of years I will start to process some of my brass that I have been meaning to get to. I have like 4 five gallon buckets of japanese military once fired 5.56 brass. side by side they look like Lapua. with the same nice case hardening and the primer pockets uniform and not punched and rough. plus the weight in very uniform in the high 93 area. will have to swage them but oh well.

 

[tasco 74]

good point navy joe!

i have seen several new pieces of brass without flash holes......

 

[coloradokevin]

Never really realized how much variation there was in "new" brass.

Just measured a few pieces with the calipers, and I'm glad I decided to trim... My range brass didn't have any more variation than this stuff. First three pieces I measured for length gave me 1.761", 1.751", and 1.755"!

 

[Schleprok62]

I don't change my process for new brass. Reason: consistency! If I size and shape all my brass the same, then the only variable would be case capacity, which is why we seperate, or sort, brass by mfg...



Disclaimer:
I don't shoot for competition, so weighing the brass isn't a real factor for me. I know it can be a factor for those that do shoot for comp, and I can appreciate that. It's just a step that my needs can omit...